On Opening Day 2009, Vin Scully, right, and his wife Sandi, are on the field with PFC Jesse De La Cruz, left, who hugs then Dodgers Manager Joe Torre before giving the ball to Scully for the first pitch ceremony at Dodger Stadium. (Terry Pierson/Riverside Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Vin Scully, after further review, has an addendum to why he is protesting the NFL because of an NFL protest.

“When I turn the TV on, I see flag-covered coffins, and warriors returning from the war without arms or legs, or a young widow crying in a cemetery, or children crying for their dad who never comes home … I see suicides of veterans because of post-war stress because of what happens to them.

“When I see players kneeling, it absolutely kills me that anyone dare do that.”

This was Thursday evening, and the Dodgers’ retired Hall of Fame broadcaster was explaining to us why, during a public gathering in Pasadena last Saturday, he felt compelled to talk about his personal disappointment with NFL protests that have been taking place this season during the national anthem.

His remarks made it to ESPN.com’s home page by Sunday morning, just hours after an appearance where he was paid by the Distinguished Speakers Series of Southern California to entertain an audience of 3,000, some of whom paid several hundreds of dollars for a ticket. This was an encore performance to an event last March when Scully appeared before four sold-out appearances.

A pre-determined question was presented to him at the end of a Q&A session from moderator Tim Cates, the KLAC-AM (570) personality. Scully was prepared with his answer:

“I am so disappointed … I used to love, during the fall and winter, to watch the NFL on Sunday,” Scully said. “And it’s not that I’m some great patriot. I was in the Navy for a year, didn’t go anywhere, didn’t do anything. But I have overwhelming respect and admiration for anyone who puts on a uniform and goes to war.

“So the only thing that I can do in my little way is to not to preach; I will never watch another NFL game.”

From video taken of that moment, most in the audience responded with applause.

In the days following it, criticism rolled in by waves, some of it devolving into name calling.

Extreme sigh.

A COMPLICATED, PROBLEMATIC ISSUE

Whether the soon-to-be 90-year-old Scully knew that some blowback would come, as well as supporters coming out in his defense — or he expects more from explaining more context with additional remarks — it shouldn’t be the issue.

Just as Colin Kaepernick decided it was worth taking a knee during the anthem to call attention to social injustice in the African American community, and subsequent NFL players have carried on the gesture in his absence even if the original intent seems to be lost, Scully deserves respect for sharing his opinion based on the good will and thoughtfulness he has banked over the last many decades.

Protesting happens on many levels. A bar owner in Chicago, for example, says he won’t show NFL games on his establishment’s TVs until Kaepernick is playing again. It’s in line with a social media movement #BlackOutNFL led by African-American men vowing to not watch the NFL.

The media encourages athletes, as public figures, to take a stance in the social arena and push for understanding and change – an example is what Golden State’s Steph Curry writes this weekend on ThePlayersTribune.com: “Every single veteran I’ve spoken to … a lot of them have said, that even if they don’t totally agree with every position of every person, this is exactly the thing that they fought to preserve: The freedom of every American to express our struggles, our fears, our frustrations, and our dreams for a more equal society.”

Both Scully and Kaepernick took their stances and reasoned it through. Attacks in response are less thought out and disproportionately angry with self-righteousness.

If there was support for Scully aside from the Saturday applause at the Pasadena event, it was tempered by respectful idisagreement from some. But there is a disheartening tone by others. Such asy Michael Rapaport, the actor/director turned sports podcaster and author of a new book, “This Book Has Balls: Sports Rants From the MVP of Trash Talking.” On Tuesday, he turned his smart phone on himself, hit video record, and eventually posted a rant on Twitter that included:

“Old man Vin Scully … he’s saddened, but he’s not going to watch anymore NFL games… (bleep) you … old man Vinny will shed a tear when talking about the great Jackie Robinson and everything that he went through … Don’t watch the games y’ol piece of (bleep). …”

Mushnick was influenced by sports broadcasting historian David J. Halberstam, who answered Scully critics by challenging them to go to YouTube.com and listen to Scully describe Hank Aaron’s 715th home run in 1974 for the Dodgers’ TV audience. His call included: “What a marvelous moment for the country and the world … A black man is receiving a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking the record of an all-time idol!”

It compelled former Fox Sports executive producer Ed Goren to respond on Twitter: “Don’t always agree with Phil Mushnick, but he’s right on today in column about Vin Scully. Says a lot about (the) world today.”

MORE ADDED CONTEXT(Photo: CBS Sports)

Scully is no stranger to the NFL experience, having done play-by-play at CBS on the league for eight seasons – 1975 to ’82. He was John Madden’s first broadcast partner, and called the San Francisco 49ers’ 28-27 win in the 1981 NFC title over Dallas that became known as “The Catch” for the Joe Montana-to-Dwight Clark finish.

Scully’s wife, Sandi, was a former secretary to Los Angeles Rams general manager Don Klosterman.

As he saw responses fill his personal email box, Scully decided it was worth trying to add more to the remarks in Pasadena where he didn’t have the time to expand.

It should be noted that the very next night, he appeared at a charity fundraiser in Camarillo for a nursing home. In a 40-minute talk before some 250 guests, the NFL subject wasn’t broached, even though it had become part of the latest news cycle.

“I would certainly defend their right to protest,” Scully replied when we reminded him about why Kaepernick initiated his protest and how it was a Green Beret Army veteran and and former Seattle Seahawks player Nate Boyer who recommended he take the knee rather than sit during the anthem.

“What has bothered me is that this looks like a way to dishonor to our veterans.”

He paused to gather more conviction. Maybe he even flashed back to that September day in 2012, on his bobblehead night at Dodger Stadium, when he watched from the press box as his granddaughter, Mackenzie Luderer, sang the national anthem.

“If they really wanted to do something,” Scully continued, “instead of taking a knee, they’d get down on both knees and thank God they live in America…”

What would it take for Scully to change his mind about watching the NFL again?

“I’ve become a college football fan on Saturdays … how about that?” he said. “On Sundays, if they resolve this properly and go out of their way to honor the veterans, there’s a chance I’d go back and look.”

Just to make sure we understood Scully’s stance, we reached out again Friday morning to review the quotes he gave us Thursday. His response: “That is spot on regarding my opinion. Please do not denigrate the anthem and those who have paid such a huge price to keep it alive.”

We also ran past him the quote from Jackie Robinson in his 1972 memoir: “I cannot stand and sing the anthem. I cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.”

Any response to why that is different from what is going on today?

“I think I have said enough,” Scully responded.

MEASURING MEDIA MAYHEM

WHAT SMOKESIllustration by Jim Thompson/www.ThompsonSportsArt.com

== In the wake of reports that ESPN will start a process of cutting some 100 more employees from its payroll between Thanksgiving and the New Year, the network said it will launch a new fee-driven streaming service next spring called ESPN Plus that will deliver “thousands more” live events, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger on a company shareholders call this week. “We think new technologies in the marketplace are great for us,” he said.

== Congratulations to Sports USA, the Simi Valley-based independent syndicator of live sports events that will be doing its 500th NFL game today – the Chargers’ contest in Jacksonville. It has taken Sports USA founder and lead broadcaster Larry Kahn 15 years to get to this point, building it from 32 affiliates in 2002 to more than 500 today.

WHAT CHOKESNBC shows off the SkyCam overhead view of live action during the Seattle-Arizona game on Thursday.

== An announcement from NBC that it will televise the majority of this coming Thursday’s Tennessee-Pittsburgh game through its overhead SkyCam angle appears to be a test pitting younger viewers against “traditional” older ones. We got a taste of this during a fog-ridden Week 7 Sunday night game in New England, and examples of the overhead shots were displayed again by NBC during last Thursday’s Seattle-Arizona game. “Younger generations of NFL fans have grown accustomed to watching football from this angle through their love of video games,” said Fred Gaudelli, Executive Producer of NBC Sunday Night Football and Thursday Night Football. “This telecast will have a look and feel akin to that experience. We’ll still have our full complement of cameras and will revert to traditional coverage when situations dictate.” So what’s the issue? When it came up on ESPN’s “Pardon The Interruption,” Michael Wilbon said in response to whether this is something he’d like to see as a standard way of televising football: “No. I’m used to watching football a certain way. The NFL and network partners better be careful about this.” It’s just a Thursday night game. Where else can one experiment? And that line of reasoning almost hits the same notes as those who can’t accept a female play-by-play voice because it just “sounds wrong” on an NFL game.

Tom Hoffarth is a freelancer. He had been with the Daily News/Southern California News Group since 1992 as a general assignment sports reporter, columnist and specialist in the sports media. He has been honored by the Associated Press for sports columnists and honored by the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Association for his career work. His favorite sportscaster of all time: Vin Scully, for professional and personal reasons. He considers watching Zenyatta win the Breeders' Cup 2009 Classic to be the most memorable sporting event he has covered in his career. Go figure that.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.